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Vathanalu Reckoning
The Vathanalu Reckoning is the standard calendar in use throughout most of human civilization in Orithea and Rhydain as well as in certain other parts of the world. "Vathanalu" means "from the disaster" or "from the catastrophe" in classical Tuvai, in reference to the Great Cataclysm, because the calendar counts years starting from that event. Years of the post-Cataclysm era are notated Cirda Vatha (abbreviated C.V. or CV), meaning "after the catastrophe," and years of the pre-Cataclysm era are notated Banu Vatha (B.V. or BV), meaning “preceding the catastrophe”. The system does have a year zero, the year in which the Cataclysm occurred; it is typically referred to simply as Yalu Vathara, the Year of Catastrophe. The last year before that was 1 BV and the first year after it was 1 CV. The current Vathanalu year is 1255 CV. This corresponds to the year 5106 SAJ by the Tarquenian calendar used in Achuirea. Like the Tarquenian calendar and most of the calendars used in Orithea pre-Cataclysm, the Vathanalu Reckoning uses a 364-day lunisolar year divided into 13 months of 28 days each. Its new year begins on the day after the winter solstice. The sacred portent of the number 13, and the fact that the 28-day lunar cycle fits perfectly into the 364-day solar year to yield 13 months of identical length, are regarded as divinely significant. Prior to the adoption of the Vathanalu Reckoning, a number of different calendars and timekeeping schemes were in use in different parts of Orithea and Rhydain. Some counted years from the beginning or end of the Schism Wars. Others reckoned the years starting from some supposed date when the early humans left Ulshanru, or even from the creation of the human race; these were completely speculative and varied widely, since historians have no way of knowing how long ago such events really occurred. Some kingdoms used calendar systems based on regnal years or dynastic foundings. Needless to say, this produced a frustrating situation for scholars attempting to make use of books and records from different parts of Orithea. Chronicles from one source might give a year as 7415 since the creation of mankind; another might give the same year as 9294 since the same; a third might call it 3270 since the end of the Schism Wars; a fourth might give it as the 23rd year in the reign of the good king Dagomar; and a fifth as year 449 of the Chalbari Dynasty. The near-universal adoption of the Vathanalu reckoning in Orithea and Rhydain was driven by a scholarly consensus (which nevertheless took a number of decades to form after the Cataclysm). This consensus was based on two facts that made the Cataclysm an ideal starting event for a new calendar system. Firstly, its massive destabilizing effects had rippled throughout much of Orithea, not just the lands surrounding the Sarpic Seas; it had an impact on lands as far away as Enyrion and Khadoa. Secondly, its date was clearly and consistently documented by chroniclers from every corner of Orithea, thanks to widely observable phenomena like the darkening of the skies and 'summer without warmth' that followed (even the explosion of Alborak itself was heard and felt, and documented, more than a thousand miles away). Thus a common reference point for the calendar's year zero was available and agreed upon all over the continent.